Looking Back at my JLPT Experience

Yesterday, I was busy with doing certificates for the winners of the "End Impunity: Make Human Rights a Habit" online essay writing contest that the school conducted on December 9, 2011. I think all those who won deserve the places they got and almost all the year levels received a certain place. The third place went to a 2nd year student named Leeanne Guillemer from II-Diamond. The title of her essay is "Rights Minus Wrong." She has  great ideas. I see her as a promising student. The second place went to Jeryl Abong of III-Krypton. The title of his essay is "As the Mighty Pen Vanishes." I am not at all surprised that this boy got a place. I have heard of him from other teachers and I knew his older brother, who was also a remarkable person. The person who got the first place is Almaine Pedraza from IV-Quezon. I was really surprised because I could not recall what she looks like. I have to search Facebook to know. The title of her winning piece is "Utilize Parity for the Humanity." It really gave her insights about human rights and the things she wrote about jive the theme of the contest. Well, congratulations to the three contestants who bagged the winnings.

After doing my task as a facilitator of the contest and reflected about the achievement of these students, I come to recall a certain battle of mine that happened only recently. That was the Japanese Language Proficiency Test that I take every year since 2008. Yes, I've been taking that test for four years. I certainly hope that I will finally succeed this year. But then again, I did not review for this years test because I was feeling lethargic during that time, I was busy with other concerns, I didn't have time to go to the library to gather materials and I felt like "maybe I'll just try my luck this time." In short, I got LAZY. Hahaha! If ever my students read about this post, I will advice them not to follow this example. Reviewing for a test is important especially if you want to pass.

This year, I took the N3 test. I took the same level last year because I find Level 2 hard to accomplish, especially now that I didn't have the training that I used to have when I was still studying at the Philippine Institute of Japanese Language and Culture.

The sections of the N3 test are the following:

N3	Language Knowledge (Vocabulary) (30 min)	Language Knowledge (Grammar)・Reading (70 min)	Listening (40 min)	140 min

Every year I have a certain feeling about the JLPT test that tells me whether I have a good chance of passing or not. I actually felt pretty good this year because "ano dokkai shiken wa daitai wakarimasu." Dokkai is usually the hardest part. However, this year I could understand, perhaps half???, of what I read. Maybe doing   translation jobs has helped me with this. Now, if only I was able to finish the last two articles and not guessed the letters to shade in those parts, then it would have given me an even better hunch. What I find hard taking this year was the choukai shiken. It needs a lot of attentiveness on the part of the listener. Furthermore, one needs to write notes fast. Moji/goi no bun wa mama deshita. So, all in all, I really do not know if I am going to pass or not.

The location of the JLPT test was different. Although De La Salle University is still hosting the testing place, they changed the building to use. I had a hard time locating the building and room. Couple that up with bad weather, it was not a nice experience. I have parts of my clothing that got wet. In addition, the room temperature was cold. Good thing I had my jacket with me. But then again, parts of my jacket were wet from the rain. I had to put pieces of paper on my back so as not to catch pneumonia.    

Well, that's it for now. Got to go to school for I'm already late.